BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (CN) — Officials of Bakersfield College and the Kern Community College District in California cannot investigate, discipline or fire a professor after he sued them over diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
The protection for Daymon Johnson stems from a stipulated order signed Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Kirk Sherriff. Johnson, who served as faculty lead for campus group Renegade Institute for Liberty, filed suit in 2023. He claimed college administrators villainized his group, fired one professor for “wrongthink” and investigated him after a colleague filed a harassment complaint.
“Given school officials’ various ideological proclamations, his experience of being investigated for pure political speech and the example defendants made of his colleague and direct predecessor as RIFL faculty lead, whom they fired for dissent, Professor Johnson refrains from expressing himself on political matters for fear of being subjected to further investigations and termination,” he said in his complaint…